


A Review of Pride and Extreme Prejudice

by DaibhidC



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Gen, Parody, fictional review
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26649358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaibhidC/pseuds/DaibhidC
Summary: Jane Gordon's debut novel, critiqued by the Discworld's most esteemed (or possibly just steamed) literary critic
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	A Review of Pride and Extreme Prejudice

**Author's Note:**

> Written by Brian Yeast, for the _Ankh-Morpork Literary Gazette and Paradigm Shifters' Monthly_

The debut novel by Miss Gordon is worthy of note. It is, of course, regrettable that the publishers, Velman and Jones, have chosen to market it as a "detective novel", with the result that it has now found favour with the _hoi polloi_ and people who don't even know what anagnorisis _is_. It goes without saying that viewing the work purely in such terms as "whom has done it?" is as gauche as reading _Les Intentions Cruelle_ for the scenes of an intimate nature. (Such a person would, naturally, be reading M. Lactos's work in translation, rather than the original Quirmian.)

The tale begins with the introduction of one Captain Fitzadam Darcleish, an officer in the Pseudopolis City Watch who is spending a summer in the Shires, having acquired a property by the name of Perambulatory House. Alas, the witty first line that "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse" proves accurate, and he must investigate a foul murder at a neighbouring manor.

This leads him to meet his co-protagonist, a spirited young woman named Hannah Dashiell, who lives with her parents and sisters in the house where the crime occurred. She identifies the cadaver as that of her younger sister's _amour_ , Mr Twickenham.

From there, the novel perhaps spends too much time within the mental space of the Captain, as he attempts to ascertain who would wish to inflict _mort_ upon Mr Twickenham. The evidence he gathers suggests that Mr Twickenham is not well-liked in the community. The psychology of the criminal classes is touched upon, although Captain Darcleish expresses the view that there is no such thing as the criminal classes, an opinion not shared by your current elucidator, who feels the definition of such could usefully be extended to "anyone who doesn't know what anagnorisis is".

The book's portrayal of the relationships between the various characters is well-realised, although again limited by the insistence on remaining within the narrative voice of Darcleish and his monomaniacal obsession with the murder, meaning that the focus is largely on which of the _dramatis personae_ is most likely to have committed such a deed. Despite this, the resolution of this question is poorly foreshadowed, with the perpetrator instead transpiring to be one of the _less_ likely suspects. I am perplexed that none of the critics praising the novel for its "detective story" elements have noticed this obvious flaw.

I also felt that the romantic subplot between Captain Darcleish and Miss Dashiell was a further distraction from the portrayal of country life, and remain perplexed as to the significance of the passage towards the end of a scene in which Darcleish searches a pond for the murder weapon, which describes in unnecessary detail the simple fact that his shirt is now wet. These caveats aside, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to the subscribers of this journal, who can be entrusted to read it _properly_.

**Author's Note:**

> The first line of P&EP is quoted on the back cover of _Snuff_. Brian Yeast and the AMLG&PSM are from the back of _Where's My Cow?_


End file.
